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The Palestine war of 1948 coincided with the initial phases of three historic processes affecting the entire Middle East in the aftermath of World War Two: the formation of independent national states, the emergence of a distinct Arab state system, and the replacement of colonial domination with US-Soviet rivalry. As these processes evolved, they increasingly interacted with one another, and it was this multidimensional dynamic that determined the decisions taken by the parties to the Arab-Israeli conflict regarding war and peace. This war left Palestinian society leaderless and disorganized....

The Palestine war of 1948 coincided with the initial phases of three historic processes affecting the entire Middle East in the aftermath of World War Two: the formation of independent national states, the emergence of a distinct Arab state system, and the replacement of colonial domination with US-Soviet rivalry. As these processes evolved, they increasingly interacted with one another, and it was this multidimensional dynamic that determined the decisions taken by the parties to the Arab-Israeli conflict regarding war and peace. This war left Palestinian society leaderless and disorganized. Its principal political institutions during the British mandate had been closely identified with key members of the old elite, and suffered their fate. The Palestinians evolved varying strategies of survival in adaptation to their disparate circumstances. Palestinian nationalist patriotism did, however, ultimately emerge as a dominant force.